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A Cheshire Police officer has been commended by the College of Policing for his work to set up an anti-stalking unit.

Detective Constable David Thomason was presented with the College of Policing’s Partnership/Collaboration Award on Thursday (March 28) for his work setting up the unit, which is based in Warrington and is one of three in the country and the first of its kind in the North West.

The specialist unit was officially opened in June last year and sees police, mental health professionals, outreach workers and victim advocates working together to protect victims of stalking and give them an enhanced level of support.

They also work to tackle the behaviour of stalkers and the root causes of their offending.

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Dave also provided a training programme to colleagues to help them improve understanding and awareness of stalking and harassment amongst police officers and staff – which enabled officers to better recognise stalking behaviour and record it appropriately.

After collecting the award he said: “I'm both amazed and surprised to have won this award and I felt really lucky even to have been nominated, considering the quality of all the other nominations.

“I'm passionate about trying to improve the police response to stalking and certainly don't do it to win awards, but it's so nice to be recognised nationally this way.

“I couldn't have got to where we are now without the support from my colleagues, and in particular my colleagues in the Integrated Anti-Stalking Unit."